Monthly Archives: September 2013

Sunny Standard Rate.

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POSITION: Embry-Riddle

I took this photo the other day by the flight line and I had to add some insight.

Finally all settled down! Yes, after a couple weeks, I am back into the swing of things. It feels amazing to be back! I’ve been busy with classes, my sorority (Sigma Sigma Sigma), club meetings and I actually just got back from flying with a couple of friends. A thunderstorm rolled in and we just missed it as we turned on final. It’s never a dull day here in Florida!

Recruitment week is finished and Sigma Sigma Sigma recruited 15 new wonderful Purple Violets!

✈ This past week we had a guest speaker; Dr. Bloom from the Prescott campus came to talk to us here in Daytona Beach. He gave us a lecture on the topic of ‘Deception.’ Embry-Riddle is trying to intertwine the programs at the Prescott campus here with us. Needless to say, it was a really neat experience!

In my Homeland Security class, aside from all the important stuff, we have been learning about all the different sectors within the field. Most people think of the TSA or Coast Guard when they think of Homeland Security, but actually, there are so many more branches such as intelligence, environmental security, defense, etc. The opportunities here are endless.

 This has been my view these past couple weeks.

In addition, October marks Cyber Security Month, so we will have some pretty interesting topics arising in class and in the Homeland Security Student Association! I am currently on the Public Relations Committee, so expect some cool information on Cyber Security Month when I post next week. I’ve been REALLY busy with switching majors and whatnot, so bear with me. Expect some flying pictures soon 😉

Blue Skies ✈

Back to School at EPF

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Hey Everybody,
I hope that your first two weeks or so of classes have been going well and that you have settled into a somewhat familiar pattern. Since the last time I wrote, I have officially completed my first week at EPF Graduate School of Engineering, Embry-Riddle’s partner school for dual engineering degrees.

This is one of the main classroom buildings, from facebook.com/EPF.ingenieurs/photos_stream

This building the student cafeteria where students can buy sandwiches, drinks, and pastries, from
facebook.com/EPF.ingenieurs/photos_stream

A sample where foreign exchange students come from, shout out to Axel who was at EPF last year, from
facebook.com/EPF.ingenieurs/photos_stream.

I was relieved to discover that the schedule given to me during orientation was of all possible classes for third year students. Once I simplified my schedule and was assigned to lab and exercise groups, my weekly planner was not too complex. So far, on any given day, I have a maximum of about three classes and a lunch break of about an hour and half. Since I am a dual degree student, I do not have to take all of the same classes as the other third year students due to either different course requirements or because I have already taken the equivalent at ERAU. This means that some days, I only have one class or I do not have class at all. Granted, the class periods are much longer than at ERAU. Most classes are about two hours long with labs being about four. Regardless of the length of the class, for every two hours of class, there is about a fifteen minute break. Sometime the break is longer if the professor is late or loses track of time. I think that once my other specialized classes are added to my class schedule, my days will fill up a bit more. In the meanwhile, I am enjoying the extra free time on the weekdays. However, I have class on Saturday mornings and for one or two evenings each week, which stinks a bit.

Above is my schedule, so far, for September.

One aspect of the system at EPF that is quite nice is that professors do not usually assign much homework, if any at all. Even though I do not have any official homework, the nerdy perfectionist in me insists on going through the day’s notes and looking up words and concepts that are unfamiliar. Since my classes are lecture based, I do not have to speak and stumble over unfamiliar words. Instead, I just listen and take notes off of the black board or the overhead projector. Surprisingly, I do not have too many problems in class understanding the professor. A lot of the technical vocabulary used is either exactly same as the word in English, or it is very similar. The only times I have a bit of trouble is when the professor has an unfamiliar accent or terrible handwriting. Since I do not know all of the words well enough to place them in context, I usually just spell the word to the best of my ability (phonetically) or I take a peek at my neighbor’s notes.

Taken during our orientation, you can see Alessandro to the far right, facebook.com/EPF.ingenieurs/photos_stream

The other students at EPF are quite understanding of my situation and are willing to help me. Just in the past week, I have received a tour of one of the three sites of the campus, have had a very patient lab partner, and have been given clarification during a lecture from my peers. In addition, I have had multiple people tell me that if I ever have any trouble understanding anything, I can just ask them and that they will help me to the best of their ability. Their kindness is very inspiring. For example, during my first lab, I was initially by myself and trying to translate the directions. But then, a fellow student, named Manon, asked if she could join me. She didn’t have to work with me, there were other computers open. I was a complete wild card. In general, during my classes are ERAU, the minute the professor instructs students to grab a partner, everyone heads for either someone they know or know to be a good worker. Manon didn’t know anything about me. She didn’t know if I understood what I was supposed to do or even if I was tech savvy. She took a chance and I think it went pretty well. We were able to complete our assignment in the allotted time and we were able to talk about our hometowns. It turns out, that Manon is from a small town near Dijon, which is about a three hour car drive from Paris.

Another really nice person I met this week is Laura. Laura is in the same year as me and we have the same lab and exercise groups. It’s pretty cool that I met her because she is one of the two main contenders for entry into the dual degree program. At EPF, French students take their fourth year at ERAU. Her English is pretty good and from what I can tell, she is pretty stoked about ERAU. If she gets into the dual degree program, she is sure to fit in well. (There are multiple pictures of her in NASA gear and standing next to jet engines) Laura is pretty funny and full of energy. She told me about BDS, a student run sports program that takes place every Thursday after classes. We have plans to try playing soccer this year. We are both out of practice and there aren’t too many girls who play. It should be a lot of fun. I think it is safe to say that I am most definitely looking forward to this next school year. I hope you are too.
Thank you for reading,
-Brenna

Back to School and Mapping Mountains

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Greetings!

I’m going to actually write a relevant blog entry this time, I promise.

Fall semester is in full swing with first midterm exams coming up soon and lots of late-night homework assignments in the rear-view. Actually, I take that back; I really haven’t had a late night. Which is odd for me… I think I’m finally learning time management skills. I’ve been really good about not starting to work at 8 pm the night before the assignment is due – a valuable lesson to say the least. I’m bracing myself for when the semester is going to hit me, but for the time being it’s been pretty manageable. *knock on wood*

I promised I’d tell you guys about the awesome classes I’m taking this semester, so I’m going to do that now. My first class of the week, bright and early at 1 pm Monday morning (I know you’re jealous) is Thermodynamics. A lot of what we’re doing so far has been review (thanks to my awesome Physics II professor for hitting thermo hard), and the concepts are pretty interesting. Exams in this class are open everything, meaning textbooks, notes, and even computers/iPads/etc! Of course with the assumption you’re not going to text your friend and ask them for the answer. I think it’s a really cool system because it’s a lot like the real world (though in the real world you actually can call your friend and ask them the answer, but that’s beside the point.) Thermo is the last class I have to get out of the way as far as Engineering Sciences, which are kind of the physical fundamental classes you have to take before they throw you in a room and expect you to design a spaceship. That being said, it’s not my favorite, but I don’t hate it either.

Monday evenings I’m taking a Master’s level software engineering class as an elective, because I’m also doing a computer science minor. It’s really neat – one of those 3 hour, once a week night classes like what your parents would take if they go back to school. Which means I am literally about 5-10 years younger than everybody else in that class. Between that and not being a software engineering major (or a grad student, for that matter), it’s a bit intimidating, but I’m not afraid of the class. It seems pretty straight forward and I’m getting to write some pretty cool programs. I’m also taking a second grad class called Numerical Methods, which is kind of a cross between MATLAB and error analysis. I’m not really sure to expect from that one, but it’s cool nonetheless, and luckily I’m not the only undergrad, as there are a few other students in the accelerated program (which is why I’m taking grad classes, if you aren’t up to speed on my other blog entries. It basically means I’m getting my BS and MS at the same time, and will graduate with both after 5 years.)

The coolest classes I’m taking this semester are Spaceflight Dynamics and Astronomy – I finally get to start learning space stuff, which is what I came here to do! And they’re really interesting. In Spaceflight we’re basically learning everything you ever wanted to know about orbits, and in astronomy it’s everything you ever wanted to know about space – we’ve already talked about the solar system, constellations, and learned phases of the moon, along with a little bit of history of astronomy. By the end of the semester I’ll know about everything from stars to black holes!

Topographical map of the Andes Mountains generated by MATLAB’s mapping toolkit.

I’m back to actually doing some cool things in SPRL, after a few weeks of reading and playing with MATLAB tools. We are working on creating topographical (elevation) maps for mountain regions – the Andes mountains at the moment – and hoping to use this elevation data to model some real-world mountain waves. More physicists just use a smoothed gaussian hill to research mountain waves, so we’re taking it one step ahead by using actual topographic data. There’s a lot of complicated math and MATLAB programming ahead, but I’m definitely looking forward to what will come of it!

With the school year back on and in full force I don’t have a lot of free time, although to be honest that’s the way I like it. Nonetheless my weekends have been pretty free (since I’m keeping ahead on my homework like a good student), so I’ve had some time to start watching Breaking Bad and frequent Red Lobster’s Endless Shrimp (coconut shrimp… mmm….) I also went ice skating last Saturday, but we were both scared so after making two laps around holding onto the edges we gave up and went to see a movie. Plus ice skating in Florida just seems wrong. In other news, I got this candle at Bath and Bodyworks  called “Pumpkin Pecan Waffles” and now my apartment smells ah-ma-zing.

That’s all I have for now. Tune in next week for my random ramblings about ERAU, Research, and the mysteries of life!

There weren’t very many pictures in this post, so here’s a picture I took of a moo cow from the State Fair:

-Lynsey

Control Lock Removed.

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POSITION: Embry-Riddle

Back for another year! It’s taken a little for me to get back into the swing of things, but I’m enjoying the excitement of it all. I am so excited to let you all in on what I am doing this year. I switched my major to Homeland Security with a minor in International Relations and Terrorism Studies. Yes, I will of course still be flying! However, I am now taking a different approach toward my studies and I am so excited to be able to fuel a bigger passion that I have had all my life. Stay tuned! This week is going to be the busiest out of the whole year, so I will fill everyone in next week on what has been going on. So many amazing things are on the horizon!

Before flight, us pilots have to remove the control lock from the yoke in order to actually turn the yoke. When the airplane is not being operated, the control lock basically locks the ailerons in place so that the wings are stable when rough winds are present. It’s crucial during large storms because this can be damaging to the aircraft’s wings.

As I was preparing for a flight the other day, I stared at the control lock and thought, “what would happen if I didn’t put the control lock in place after flight? What if I, figuratively, let the plane go through a storm without a control lock?” Bear with me. For example, when stormy events happen in our lives, we tend to run away. It’s only human nature. We throw on our control locks, become detached and abandon our aircraft. Most of the time, we fail to see what incredible growth such storms can create. I obviously don’t mean this literally, but what would you do if you could hold the reins in a certain situation?

 See, we all have this control lock that makes us feel safe. We feel as if it will protect us from any danger, when in reality, sometimes it’s crucial we throw our control locks out the window. We can’t grow if we are constantly locking our ‘steering wheel’ throughout life. It’s easy to stay in a comfortable situation because it appears safe, however it’s probably more dangerous to assume that you will still grow as a person if you stay in the same place. This couldn’t be more wrong. It locks your steering wheel.

I’m telling you to forget about those thoughts of staying comfortable because it’s “safe.” Explore your limits, set your standards, and allow yourself to grow. Sure, control locks are great when you are faced with stormy, or unsafe, situations – but you will never know how to steer your yoke if it is constantly locked. You can’t move from Point A expecting to get to Point B when you have no control over your momentum. But here’s the thing: you are completely capable of taking the steering wheel of your own life, and moving the yoke in any direction you please. The only thing that’s stopping you, is the illusion that the control lock is what’s going to make you stay in a safe place. To stay safe is to move. When will you remove it?

Blue Skies and broken control locks

 ✈

Mastering French and Study at EPF

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Greetings Everybody,

Whew, these past two weeks have been a complete whirlwind. Between taking a final exit exam for the language program, getting everything organized for the start of the school year, and moving into a new residence (from which I did not have internet access for about a week), I have barely had the time to stop moving to find consistent internet. I apologize that this entry is almost a week late.

Looking back, over the course of two and a half months, I have learned quite a bit of French. During my first language assessment, I tried to recall my French classes that I took in high school over three years ago. I remember that I wrote that I went to the supermarket and ordered food a lot. In some cases, I simply made stuff up. As a result of my creativity and repetition, I was placed in the class for French language level A1. (The levels start at A and continue on to C and each letter has two sublevels of 1 and 2.) Now, I believe my class is beginning B1 and I have learned ten verb tenses, such as the présent, présent continue, passé composé, imparfait, conditionnel, futur proche, futur simple, passé récent, impératif, and plus que parfait. Just think, each verb tense has exceptions that do not follow the set of rules and even the verb tenses have slight nuances that even I don’t know. In addition, even though I have learned a ton of new words, I still have to search in the dictionary multiple times a day and I still have difficulty with any conversation concerning specific vocabulary. This was evident during my final test.

My final language skill assessment had three parts: oral comprehension, reading comprehension, and grammar. For me, probably the most difficult portion of the exam was the oral comprehension. We were only allowed to listen to the audio clips once and sometimes the voices spoke very quickly. For me, I think that as a native English speaker, the rhythm of French is different than the pattern of words in English. This means that I have difficulty parsing out words; I don’t know where one word ends and where another one starts. My thought is that distinguishing words is easier for people who speak Spanish and Italian. That being said, I actually didn’t do half bad on my test and my professor gave me some really nice feedback. I am actually starting to feel a little bit prepared for the upcoming year (knock on wood).

Last week, I went to EPF’s main campus site located in Sceaux for an introductory meeting and lunch. I think it went fairly well. I was able to get a lot of questions answered and I received the basic class schedule for all third years.


This is the class schedule for third year students, taken in August of 2013.

Even though it looks extremely complicated, there is method to the madness. This page shows my classes for roughly eight weeks. At EPF, classes are more in a block presentation. This means that the duration of my classes is longer, but I also take fewer of them. As a result, my schedule can change from time to time as I finish classes and add others. In addition, each different color signifies a different class and some classes are subdivided into labs, exercise groups, and project groups. Additionally, since I am a Dual Degree student, I have to take classes that are not in a normal third year’s timetable, which means that this schedule is going to become even more complicated. Each day of the week receives its own row, so the weeks run vertically. The two columns to the far left of the chart provide information such as the name, location, and time of each class. Each day, I start around 8:15 AM, have an hour and a half for lunch, and finish at the latest at 6PM. Right now, I miss my schedule from last spring at ERAU.

This was my class schedule for spring 2013, created in January of 2013

Each week, I had the same classes in the same order. Each color stood for a different class and I had time to do errands while most campus offices were open during the day. The earliest I started was 10:30 AM and I finished at the latest by 4:30 PM with a Resident Adviser staff meeting once a week and duty one night a week for two weeks on and then a week off at night. Even though at the time this schedule felt full, when comparing it to my new schedule, it is like comparing a knitted sweater to a hand embroidered fine silk ball gown.

I spent last weekend moving from the student residence on ESTP campus to a new building located in Antony. Both of these lodgings are located off of the same train line, RER B, which is also the same train that I need to take to EPF. I definitely like my new setup more than the old one. This new residence is pretty awesome and feels more like a small apartment.

This is a picture of my desk, taken in August of 2013

First off, I love the color scheme of the building. I know that it may be a bit too bright for some people’s tastes, but I have always loved vibrant colors. The hall leading to my door has a magenta wall and the largest wall in my apartment is chartreuse green with three blue square-shaped cupboards.

This is my kitchen, taken in August of 2013

I also have my very own, small kitchen. I am stoked to be preparing my own food in something other than a microwave as I have for the past two years. I plan to make all sorts of dishes. The kitchen has two hotplates a large sink, and a small refrigerator. I also finally have my own closet, small table, heater, and bathroom.

That’s all for this week, not super interesting. However the next entry, I’ll have some more interesting material that has been pending because I have not yet had the pictures ready. In addition, I should be able to provide some more information on the schooling system, my classes, and interaction with French students my age. My not so secret RA social examining tendencies are practically jumping with excitement.
As always, thank you for reading.
-Brenna

My Two-Week Summer Break

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Hey guys!

Sorry I haven’t written in a while. I’ve had a pretty busy couple of weeks! Summer B ended up being a successful bump of 0.004 to my GPA (woo!), and then I had a whole two weeks of summer vacation. The first week I mostly slept until at least 1 or 2, watched some afternoon court TV (because that’s all that’s on, and it’s strangely entertaining), and did some work in the lab. We are looking into topographical features on both Earth and Mars that may induce atmospheric waves (remember that mumbo jumbo I talked about in my first couple entries?). Which has been a lot of reading papers and fighting with MATLAB’s mapping toolkit. No real progress to report, except that I managed to generate a topographical map and have no idea how I did it.

Target Field is only a few years old, and is located right in downtown Minneapolis amidst the skyscrapers. It’s a beautiful stadium.

Then Saturday rolled around and I was on a flight out of Daytona Beach headed back to the Land of 10,000 Lakes for a short, jam-packed visit ’cause my family misses me and stuff since I live so far away (I don’t blame them, I’m pretty awesome.) The first day I was home, I went to a baseball game with my aunts at Target Field to see the good ole’ Minnesota Twins play the Chicago White Sox. We lost 🙁 But it was okay because I ate nachos out of a baseball helmet. Along with seeing a bunch of friends who all obviously miss me, I also managed to fit in a doctor’s appointment, dentist appointment, hair appointment, and applying for a passport within the first couple days I was home. Uffda!

Taking a picture with one of the cows in the cow barn at the State Fair. Moo

Thursday the whole family went down to the Great Minnesota Get-Together – the State Fair! It’s a magical afternoon where you eat delicious foods like cheese curds, corn fritters, and Sweet Martha’s Cookies (which come in a bucket), and look at cows and stuff. AKA the best fair ever. It was pretty hot outside – all of the people who didn’t spend in the summer in Florida were complaining; I, on the other hand, thought the weather was gorgeous.

One of my photos of Ville Valo (HIM’s singer). I love taking pictures at concerts, and I got some really fantastic ones this time.

My last night home I went to a concert with my brother, where I got to see one of my favorite bands, HIM. I pretty much planned this trip around that concert date, because the tour didn’t come down to Florida, so it ended up being a win-win. I was right up in front by the stage, which was awesome. The next morning I was up at 6 am to catch my flight back to Daytona Beach.

Well, the Fall 2013 semester is one week in and classes are already underway! This semester I am taking three undergrad classes (Thermodynamics, Spaceflight Dynamics, and Astronomy) and two grad classes (Numerical Methods and Software Engineering Disciplines) along with a one-credit EP seminar course. It’s going to be a busy semester, but I’m really looking forward to these classes. The best part of college is when you’re finally finished with classes like just physics and calc and you get to start taking classes that actually pertain to your major.

One of the Blue Men took a selfie with us after the show!

One last thing before I close out this entry. Blue Man Group has a stage down at Universal Studios, and their show is amazing. My boyfriend’s birthday was this weekend, and we went down to see it – it is really like nothing else in the world. It’s definitely one of those fantastic attractions that Orlando has to offer that gets overshadowed by all the rides and Disney stuff. The show is both awe-inspiring and hilarious, and incredibly entertaining. Go see it, you shan’t be disappointed!

That’s all for now folks. I’ll fill you in more about my classes in my next entry, once they really get going. I hope you’ve all had a good Labor Day weekend – I, for one, am a sunburned mess after spending the afternoon at the beach yesterday. But the weather was gorgeous and the water was perfect, so it was totally worth it.

Peace out!